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Debating the Good Book

There's a Republican presidential debate coming up this Thursday, and watching all the discussion of Michele Bachmann's and Rick Perry's religiosity, it made me wonder whether we're likely to see a repeat of this:

It was somewhat heartening to see even Mike Huckabee say that everything in the Bible shouldn't be taken literally, even if he did seem to say that it's easy to figure out which commands we should just follow because God told us, and which we can ignore because they are obviously crazy. If a candidate actually claimed that the Bible is to be taken literally, that ought to immediately disqualify him or her from being elected dog catcher, much less president, since it would mean he or she is in favor of things like slavery, genocide, rape, executing children for sassing their parents, executing people for working on the Sabbath, and whole lot of other things.

These days, nearly a third of Americans tell pollsters that the Bible should be taken literally, word for word. I'm guessing most of those who say this haven't the barest clue what's in it. But I'd still like to hear what Perry and Bachmann, and the other candidates, have to say.